The Glade 4.0

A fairly geeky look at some statistics around the futulity of trying to get a hit at Safeco.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.ph ... eco-field/

It's not just the Mariners who can't hit at Safeco. The last three games there have been a total of 20 or more strikeouts for both teams. Away from Safeco, the Mariners are the 6th best offensive team in baseball. At Safeco they are nearly dead last. But other teams are having the same fate.

And it's not just the unusually cool (even for Seattle) wet weather we've been having knocking fly balls down in left center. Strikeout rates are higher here than almost anywhere.

There has been a lot of media attention around the 'move the fences in' talk, but flyballs dying in the cool moist air is does not explain the strikeout rate. And then there is the fact that while it's always been a pitcher friendly park, this years strikeout and flyout rates are higher than they have ever been.

There are probably a lot of factors, at least potential factors to explain this. The weather, the batters eye might have changed, the mound may be a little higher or lower, or potentially even closer to the plate... who knows...

It's the sort of thing that makes baseball fascinating to me....

That is cool as hell. It could even be simply the color scheme hides the ball better or the lighting causes them to pick it up later, etc. etc. I <3 Baseball.

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I like pitcher parks. The old Dodger Stadium was like that.

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

I hate that stadium.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Rynar,

Would this play (run scoring on a walk off hit from last night) have anything to do with that?


I don't think Safeco had anything to do with the Red Sox losing last night. Felix was filthy last night. He made pedroia look like a little leaguer. David Ortiz said Felix was 'inhuman' last night (he struck out 13!).

No, that was actually a great game. Hernandez was absolutely filthy, and Morales matched him pitch for pitch. The great ones do that sometimes, and it's one of my favorite aspects of the game. I'm speaking to my own personal experiences attending the ball park.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Were you one of these people? :p



(note: this is not my picture.. I'ts just something I saw on sbnation)

Were your 'experiences' related to field dimensions, heavy wet air, or 'batters eye' anomalies? or something more.. personal?

The weather, and the field dimentions seem to cheapen the experience of seeing a truely great pitching performance, and I'm a fan of the pitcher's duel. It's the same reason I don't enjoy seeing games at Coors Field in relation to great hitting performances.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Just curious - which "old" Dodger Stadium? One in Brooklyn? Or the current Dodger Stadium, before they added some seating? Even after the reconfiguration (which was just a matter of decreasing foul territory), it's still very much a pitcher's park.

Oh, and, great picture of the Sox fans, that's classic.

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Before the changes made to the current stadium. Used to be much much more foul territory.

Ah, OK. I'd have to look it up, but I don't think that the reconfiguration had all that drastic of an effect. It seems like it should, but they really just took out about 10% of the foul balls that might have been caught before.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge